Fitger's Brewing Company

Fitger's Brewing Company
The west end of the Fitger's Brewery complex
Map
Location600 E. Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota, United States
Coordinates46°47′33″N 92°5′26″W / 46.79250°N 92.09056°W / 46.79250; -92.09056
Opened1881
Closed1972
Key peopleAugust Fitger
Other productsSoda, candy bars
Fitger Brewing Company
Rear of the complex
Area2.2 acres (0.89 ha)
Built1886–1930
ArchitectFrancis W. Fitzpatrick, Louis Lehle, Oliver G. Traphagen, et al.
Architectural styleUtilitarian, Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP reference No.84001690[1]
Added to NRHPFebruary 9, 1984

Fitger's Brewing Company was a beer manufacturer in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, from 1881 to 1972. The surviving brewery complex stretches for 720 feet (220 m) along the Lake Superior shoreline and East Superior Street, one of Duluth's main roads. The majority of the ten-building complex was constructed between 1886 and 1911.[2] Fitger's, as it is now known, has undergone adaptive reuse as an indoor mall with shops, restaurants, nightclubs, a hotel, and a museum on the brewery's history.[3]

Fitger's Brewing Company grew directly out of a brewery established in 1859, making it the first commercial brewery at the head of Lake Superior and the oldest continuously operating brewery in the state of Minnesota until going out of business in 1972. Fitger's was a major local employer, producing 100,000 barrels of beer annually. It stayed open during Prohibition by diversifying into soda and candy bar production.[2]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Nelson, Charles W. (1983-04-26). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Fitger Brewing Company". National Park Service. Retrieved 2019-02-10. With 13 accompanying photos from 1983
  3. ^ "Fitger's". Historic Fitger's on Lake Superior. 2016. Retrieved 2019-02-10.